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This is some simple information on some kanji for budo for people who don't speak Japanese. Perhaps it's been mentioned before. In my last blog post http://www.aikiweb.com/blogs/moon-in...utterfly-4031/ I wrote about sen no sen and go no sen 先の先, 後の先. Peter Goldsbury suggested some background on the difference between sen and saki would be helpful. They are both written with the same kanji. Actually it's a mysterious word: one of the meanings is future and one is previous.

Kanji came to Japan from China and many kept a pronunciation (or pronunciations -- there can be several) similar to the original Chinese. That's called the on-yomi or on (sound) reading. For 先 that's sen.

Then they acquired a native Japanese pronunciation (or pronunciations) called the kun-yomi or kun (meaning) reading. For 先 that's saki.